No deal has been struck on sending BP oil spill fines to Gulf Coast

Washington -- With time running out, House-Senate negotiators still haven't reached a deal on a transportation spending bill that Louisiana lawmakers hope will designate 80 percent of BP oil spill fines to the Gulf Coast. Both House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered a bit of bipartisan advice this week to the negotiators: Come up with a compromise.

The Associated PressOne-on-one negotiations are under way between Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., left, and House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla.

Current transportation spending authorization expires June 30 and without a deal by then, it's likely Congress will pass an extension of transportation funding through the end of the year, putting off decisions on major policy issues such as whether to earmark Clean Water Act fines from the BP spill to the five Gulf states.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the only Louisiana member on the House-Senate negotiating committee, said he's heard reports that an agreement now seems out of reach.

"I would say that the statements that the conference committee is going to fail are flat-out wrong," said Vitter, citing statements by Boehner and Reid as a good sign that one-on-one negotiations this week between House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will end with a deal.

Vitter said adding the Restore Act to the transportation bill remains a top priority to the Louisiana delegation. It would earmark 80 percent of spill fines under the Clean Water Act, projected to be anywhere between $5 billion and $20 billion, to Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas.

Louisiana officials are counting on the state's share to fund an ambitious ecosystem restoration program.

The Restore Act was added to the $109 billion Senate transportation bill that passed 76-22 in March.

The GOP-led House recently approved another short-term extension of transportation programs, including a "placeholder" trust fund where fines would be sent if the Restore Act becomes law.

But during meetings of the Conference Committee, some Republicans objected to the Senate Restore Act provisions.

Reps. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Ron Bishop, R-Utah, raised objections to the Senate bill, specifically $1.4 billion in financing for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other spending for an oceans study that helped win support for the act from key Senate Democrats.

Hastings said he is sympathetic to the needs of the Gulf Coast for ecosystem restoration and other recovery efforts, but expressed opposition to the new financing, especially for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Bishop said the fund has been abused in the past.

Vitter said in his view the act will survive the negotiations if a deal is reached.

The major differences between House Republicans and Senate Democrats center on GOP efforts to include a provision requiring the Obama administration to approve the contentious Keystone XL pipeline. House Republicans have also complained that funding levels in the four-year Senate transportation bill are too high.

The Obama administration projected that the funding levels for highways and mass transit in the Senate bill would generate some 11,000 jobs in Louisiana.